God in a Box

Biblical Text: Numbers 11:24-30, Acts 2:1-21, Pentecost

The Holy Day was Pentecost – hence the red and the Holy Spirit. Both Pentecost and the Holy Spirit are parts of more staid Protestantism that tend to get forgotten or played down. And I think they tend that way for what this sermon attempts to address. What we really want is God in a Box. Whether that is because we would like personally a God who does what we want, or whether we are protecting God’s reputation from losers and unsavory acts, we can find ourselves like Joshua telling God to “stop it.” The problem there is that the Holy Spirit does what He wants when He wants. And if your theology can’t handle that, as the kids say, it’s not going to make it. The flip side of that is faith, that God loves you, and if this is how the Spirit is acting it must be for your eternal good.

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Pentecostal Fire

Pentecost is the forgotten major Christian Holy Day. Like the Holy Spirit is the forgotten person of the Trinity. At least in respectable churches. Let the snake handlers and tongue-speakers have the Spirit. Ok, I’ll drop the joking around.

The Jewish religious calendar had three High Festivals on which all true Jews were supposed to sojourn to the temple: Passover, Pentecost and Sukkot. You know what Passover was, the exit from Egypt. Sukkot was a harvest festival. And like all harvest festivals it looked backwards in thanks for bringing us to this place while looking forward to some better final fulfillment, the last harvest. But what was Pentecost? It was the remembrance of Israel at the foot of Sinai receiving the law. It was the cutting of the covenant of Moses.

Passover fulfillment is rather easy. Jesus is our Passover lamb, and in his resurrection the angel of death passes over us. Sukkot doesn’t have a completed fulfillment. That would happen when Jesus comes to judge the living and the dead. But I often think about All Saints’ Day as a Christian Sukkot. We give thanks for those who came before and where we are. And we look forward to that uncountable number. Pentecost’s fulfillment is ongoing.

Unlike the law of Moses which was a static thing. It was written on stone tablets. It stood outside us as a word. We can read it and understand it and pledge allegiance to it…and then immediately go break it. We can twist it to say what we want it to say. We are all expert lawyers looking for the loopholes. Unlike that static law of Moses, the Christian Pentecost is God’s living covenant with us. It is not outside of us, but resident in our hearts. It is not a word directed at us, but the word of God spoken by us at the right time. It is not the proclamation of what we should do, but what God has done for us. Pentecost is when the things that separate us, primarily sins, are broken down and overcome. The curse of Babel is undone in the working of God. Because God is no longer casting out and spreading abroad but calling all his own to him.

As a living covenant it is one that we can’t control. The Holy Spirit blows when and where and how He wills. Maybe in one time and place and age by Bach and Byrd and Gregorian Chant. And maybe in another by snake handling and tongues. And in yet others by something not yet seen our understood which we can scarcely imagine. This is probably why Pentecost tends to be forgotten. There is nothing scary about a baby placed by his mother in a manger. And Easter is pure joy and triumph. But Pentecost? Pentecost is a walk into the unknown. Young men see visions and old men dream dreams. Male and female alike prophesy. Moons turn to blood. All of which are visual codes for when God shows up, and acts, and changes hearts. Maybe changes our heart. And that can be scary. What does a living God ask of us?

The short answer is love. But that love is rarely our definition. That love is the cross. That love is a fire that burns yet does not consume. At least not the eternal things, even if it might burn away the dross of this mortal frame.

New Wine

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Biblical Text: : Acts 2:1-21

The day on the church calendar is Pentecost, which is the 3rd most important church festival after Christmas and Easter. Although Pentecost is kinda the Rodney Dangerfield of Church festivals. It gets no respect. Although it does get the great and rare liturgical color of Red.

Wine, even the phrase “new wine” is an important image in the Bible. That phrase “new wine” is used by some in the crowd on the first Pentecost to describe what is happening right in front of their eyes. The scoffers say the disciples are “full of New Wine.” Now that claim in absolutely false in the what that they mean it, that the disciples are drunk. But they are “full of New Wine” in a divine way. The Spirit of Christ has descended upon them. The promised power from on high. This sermon meditates on what that means. It spends some time thinking about ways that claims about new wine might be abused – in line with how the Old Testament prophets could talk. It also seeks to define – in line with Peter’s Pentecost sermon quoting one of those prophets – what the actions of the Spirit, the New Wine in proper use, does.

How do you recognize the “New Wine?” It is for everyone. It allows all to understand the Word of God. And it testifies the apocalyptic reality that God is making you new, and will bring that to completion. When you see these things, you are seeing the New Wine in action.

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Sin, Righteousness and Judgement

And when He comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgement. – John 16:8

Sometimes there are phrases that just jump off the page and grab the imagination. I think the one above is one of those phrases. Today is the Feast of Pentecost, the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon the church. And that phrase is what Jesus says the Holy Spirit will accomplish. In a world where standards seem to be up for grabs the idea of the Holy Spirit convicting the world about anything seems doubtful. Convicting this world concerning sin and righteousness and judgement is quite the boast. It is worth pondering those three words and two others in that phrase – convict and world. What do they mean?

We think of convict purely in a negative legal sense – convicted. The word used here does have that meaning, but it might be better to remember an older sense of a trial. The purpose of a trial is to bring to light, to force what was hidden or in the darkness out into the open. The Holy Spirit will bring to light. And what will the Holy Spirit force into the open? The world. The entire cosmos. John likes that word cosmos. God so loves the cosmos. The Holy Spirit will expose how the world works.

How specifically will the Holy Spirit do this? The first thing will be concerning sin. And what is the sin of the world brought into the light? “That they do not believe in me (John 16:9).” The Holy Spirit will expose the fact that the World does not fear, love or trust in God above all things. That the World fears the mighty. It loves money and pleasure. It trusts in its own strength. All of which are temporal. The day the mighty dies, his plans die with him (Psalm 146:4). The fool thinks I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones (Luke 12:28), yet tonight my soul is required of me. The Holy Spirit will bring to light our foolish belief, our disbelief in God.

The Holy Spirit will bring to light righteousness. Jesus’ explanation here might be a little less immediate. “Because I go to the Father, and you will see me no longer. (John 16:10)” It is not immediately apparent why the ascended LORD is the Spirit revealing righteousness. I think this is something of an answer to Psalm 24. That Psalm asserts that the earth is the LORD’s and the fullness of it. And then it asks “Who shall ascend the hill of the LORD?…He who has clean hands and a pure heart. (Paslm 24:3-4).” Paul ponders this in Romans 10. “The righteousness based on faith says, ‘Do Not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend?’” According to the law we are always worried who could stand before the throne, and the answer is not a single person is righteous. But Christ the Lamb was worthy to ascend and take the seat at the right hand. The Holy Spirit bringing to light righteousness is the testimony that Christ sits at the right hand of God, and that our righteousness is dependent not upon our ability to ascend, but upon faith in the one who has ascended.

The Holy Spirit brings to light judgement? Should this place us back into the fear of not ascending? No, because what the Holy Spirit reveals is that “the ruler of this world is judged (John 16:11).” The important judgement is not ours, but Satan’s. He’s judged, the deed is done, one little word can fell him. The sin that is brought to light and confessed has no power over us. Because the one who sits on the Throne has had mercy, and brings to naught the plans of the evil one, who has been cast out of heaven and can no longer accuse us.

He will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgement. He will testify to the light that shines in the darkness. A light that the world cannot overcome. In this light is the life of all who receive it.

Spirit Power: Courage, Teaching, Peace

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Biblical Text: Acts 2: 1-21, 22-47, John 14:23-31

This Sunday continues a couple of series. It continues our study of the book of Acts even if we have been “jumping around” in that book. This sermon ends up following up on last week. If last week was about the Spirit’s work “inside” the church before the public work that begins on Pentecost, this week’s is about the “outside” work, what the Spirit empowers in the world. The summary is the three word subtitle. The Spirit continues to empower courage. The Christian life comes with its own power source. The Spirit empowers the teaching of the church. The sermon reflects on the first sermon of the church and how it models ever Spirit filled sermon since. And the Spirit empowers a peace that the world cannot give.

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The Holy and the Common

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Biblical Text: Ezekiel 37:1-14, Psalm 25:10, Acts 20:32

The day is Pentecost, which for us is also confirmation day. So the message today has three movements. The first is a mediation on what Pentecost means for us with the focus on the distinction between the Holy and the Common. The second and third movements are a pastoral final blessing to the confirmands in the form of a meditation on their assigned confirmation verses.

I’m sorry about the recording quality. I think my microphone cut out somewhere after the readings. The microphone that was capturing the sounds was the altar mic. I’ve tried to compensate. It is not terrible, but this is why I also post the draft.

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Out of the Heart…

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Biblical Text: Pentecost – John 7:37-39, Confirmation Verses: Ephesians 3:17-19 and Job 28:28

I love the conjunction of Pentecost with Confirmation Day. I just think so many things converge theologically and it gives you a real live image to point at in the public confession of faith. It is also just one of my favorite days to preach. We are not a large church, so I don’t have massive confirmation classes. And that allows me to craft something for each confirmand. It is something out of my heart. And that phrase in a couple of different ways is the theme of this address – “out of the heart”, what comes out of your heart?

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Confirmation Covenant

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The church calendar day is Pentecost. In our congregation that is also the day we do confirmation. I think this sermon explains the deep connection these things should have rather well. It also serves as my poor gift for those that have suffered under my tutelage in the faith the last couple of years.

A long time ago Israel received the Law on this day. Still a long time ago the Spirit was poured out on this day. And Pentecost stands on the calendar as exactly what those confirmands stood for today – a chance to renew the covenant of law and spirit that has been given to us.

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Bones

Biblical Text: Ezekiel 37:1-14
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This is possible the all time greatest preaching text. As a congregant said on the way out, it is time to fix some bones. Yes it is. And we can’t do that. But the Spirit does. And not only does he fix them, he breathes life. I’m sure I can say more, but if there is one sermon I’d let speak for itself, it is this one.

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A New Camaro; An Endless House

Biblical Text: John 7:37-39, Romans 12:2, Ephesians 3:17-19
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The picture above is our confirmation class. Today was both Pentecost and our Confirmation day. Both of those things are closely connected to baptism, so that makes an appearance. This sermon is roughly divided into two halves. The first half is the Pentecost and Confirmation as a day portion. Why do we observe these things? What do they do? How do they relate to the gospel? The second part is more specific to the confirmands. I went old school and instead of letting/demanding that the confirmands choose a verse, I assigned them one. That verse becomes both a charge and a blessing – the old duties of a bishop, to teach and to bless. That second part is where the title comes from in preaching those confirmation verses.

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